17 Athletes Who'll Inspire You to Love Your Damn Self

In need of a little body-positive inspiration? Look no further than the myriad American athletes who have graced the national and international stage in recent years. When she's not impressing people with her impeccable floor routines, gymnast Aly Raisman is schooling people in body positivity on social media. Olympic athlete Kayla Harrison spends her spare time training young women in mixed martial arts, all the while encouraging them to feel confident. And accomplished tennis player Serena Williams is always there to remind women—especially marginalized ones—that they are strong, beautiful, and immensely capable, no matter what anyone else tells them.

Raisman, Harrison, and Williams are just three of the many athletes who have thoughts to share when it comes to body image, self-esteem, and female athleticism. Whether these wise words are coming from a shotputter, a boxer, a fencer, a gymnast, a runner, or pretty much any other kind of athlete, there's a resounding thread running through the message many women in sports are sending: Strength is beautiful, power is beautiful, and you are beautiful.

"I love my body, and I would never change anything about it," Williams told SELF in August 2016. "I'm not asking you to like my body. I'm just asking you to let me be me. Because I'm going to influence a girl who does look like me, and I want her to feel good about herself."

"I think everyone goes through phases in life where they feel insecure. I have plenty of times. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to appreciate my body," Raisman said in an interview with Motto in April. "Young girls should be taught that there’s no ideal body type. We’re all different and unique in our way—if we all looked the exact same, we’d be very boring."

"We want [female athletes] to take care of themselves, feel their best, eat healthy and understand that it's OK to have muscles—because in some sports, you need those muscles," Carter told TODAY in August 2016. "We don't want to put them in a box. We want to take away the box so they can be all they can be."

Kayla Harrison, Olympic Judoka

"I think growing up, especially for young girls in judo, it's really difficult. You're told the lighter you are, the better you'll fight," Kayla Harrison told ESPN in April. "What I truly believe is that if you're going to win, you'll win at whatever weight you fight. I always preach that strong is beautiful, strong is powerful, and you shouldn't change your body for sport, for society, for anything."

In August 2016, Douglas' mother and manager Natalie Hawkins talked to Teen Vogue about how Douglas overcame an insecurity she had about her arms. "I remember when everyone was talking about her arms, and she became very self-conscious about how muscular they were. Then Gabrielle saw the elegance with which Serena Williams handled all the negative criticism of her own body," Hawkins said. "It was liberating for my daughter to see that. She said, 'I don’t have to apologize to anyone about my body. My body is beautiful.'" Douglas added, "When I came through it, I felt as if I could overcome anything."

Ibtihaj Muhammad, Olympic Fencer

"As a kid, having bigger legs was always something I struggled with—even just with finding clothes that fit," Muhammad told Shape in August 2016. But I love my legs as an adult. I embrace my shape and my body. I love the strength in my legs and I know that the stronger I can make them the more efficient I'll be as an athlete."

"I'm self-conscious about my arms. It's really hard to find a dress that's a size 10 in the lats but a size 4 in the waist," Coughlin wrote in a July 2015 essay for ESPN. "But I want to be as successful as I can. If that means having big arms, I'll take big arms."

Claressa Shields, Olympic Boxer

"For a long time, I thought my nose was pretty big. I'd get hit in my nose and I'd think, 'This nose is huge!' But now I think I'm very beautiful," Shields told ESPN in July 2016. "I'm built the way that I am—with my shape and my figure, with my muscles—and I'm grateful for it."

“I think people used to view female athletes as very butch, masculine—you kind of had to disregard your femininity to excel at an elite sport," Gray told ESPN in July 2016. "Now it’s just a different world...You are allowed to be a female and be considered beautiful and still be an athlete and still be badass in that realm.”

Mariel Zagunis, Olympic Fencer

"I love my legs, quads, and glutes the most because they allow me to lunge dynamically forward," Zagunis told Shape in August 2016. "I remember those awkward middle school years when I would look at other girls and think, I wish my legs were skinny like hers. If I could, I would go back and tell my younger self to really embrace it because athleticism is beautiful."

"Since kindergarten, I was the shortest kid in class. They always put me toward the front in school pictures, because you couldn't see me if I was in the back—it was kind of funny...I love my height because when I'm doing gymnastics it really benefits the sport. Also, I think being short is kind of cute," Hernandez told TODAY in September. "To the young girls who look up to me, I say: Be confident, because being confident means being happy, being positive, and also being kind to other people."

Mattie Rogers, Weightlifter

"Being strong is the best kind of confidence you can have," Rogers told USA Today in November 2015. "When you’re strong? It’s like a totally different kind of confidence. You’re happy with how your body looks and it’s performing."

Kelley O'Hara, Olympic Soccer Player

"When I was in middle school and even high school, I wasn't comfortable with my body. I look back and it makes me sad, but I've grown into my body and really embrace it," O'Hara told Shape in August 2016. "I don't have an hourglass figure, but that's OK, because I can play soccer and run for 90 minutes and kick ass on the soccer field. It's all good."

"It's hard growing up in a sport where you compete with very little clothing on your body and everyone is staring at [your body] no matter how good you are. No matter how good you are at the sport, people will always say you don’t look good enough," Biles wrote in her memoir, which came out in November 2016. "But we wouldn't be able to do the things or achieve the things we did without our bodies so we're very grateful for them," she told CNN in July.